The use of touch-sensitive surfaces as input devices for computers and other electronic computing devices has increased significantly in recent years. Exemplary touch-sensitive surfaces include touch pads and touch screen displays. Such surfaces are widely used to manipulate user interface objects on a display.
Exemplary manipulations include activating one or more user interface objects. Exemplary user interface objects include digital images, video, text, icons (including folder icons), and other graphics. A user may need to perform such manipulations on user interface objects on a home screen, in a file management program (e.g., Finder from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), an image management application (e.g., Aperture or iPhoto from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), or a digital content (e.g., videos and music) management application (e.g., iTunes from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.). Some user interface objects may correspond to items stored in folders.
But existing methods for activating an item in a folder are cumbersome and inefficient. For example, using a sequence of inputs to open a folder and then activate one or more items in the folder takes longer than necessary, thereby wasting energy. This consideration is particularly important in battery-operated devices.